Desperation pushed homeowner facing foreclosure to fatal actions:

[Liberty Belle]

Source: East County Magazine

2 bodies found in burned home of retired teacher and ailing wife;

Settlement just announced by CA Attorney General targets couple's lender for predatory lending practices--but relief is too late for Santee couple



By Miriam Raftery

January 3, 2011 (Santee) – Michael L. Cour, 60 and his wife, Janice Gervais, 70, faced a bleak future. The couple filed for bankruptcy June 30th. On December 6th, their lender, World Savings Bank, foreclosed on their property. A neighbor, Ruth Talaza, said Gervais had cancer and that the couple had tried multiple times to refinance, without success.



So Cour, who taught for 15 years in the Grossmont Union-High School District, told a neighbor that he was going to kill his wife and burn down their home on Clifford Heights Road, a quiet cul-de-sac in Santee. Soon after, a man called 911 to say he’d shot his wife and set fire to the home. He also threatened to shoot anyone if they tried to stop the inferno.

The school district won't comment on his "retirement" but a neighbor thought he was laid off, along with his wife, also a teacher in another district. Deep budget cuts in education have forced our local district to make some painful choices, and I wonder if his retirement was entirely voluntary at 58, two years ago, or if he was afraid he'd be laid off if he stayed.






Read more: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/5160

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This is a tragedy on so many fronts and clearly shows the failure of our government and our safety nets.

Why weren't predatory lending practices stopped in time to help this troubled couple?
Why was no help available to them?
I don't know if she was able to access affordable healthcare for her cancer, but that could be another sad side of the story here.

[Brickbat]

1. It's a goddamn shame that this happens in our country.

It's amazing to me that TPTB don't find this embarrassing.

[Liberty Belle]

2. Shame seems to be in short supply, sadly.

[Frisbee]

4. Shit, truth be known....

they'd probably be happy to see more of this. Sick fucks.

[freshwest]

5. I think TPTB consider this normal and that years of progressive reforms were the aberration.

[DBoon]

3. and they want to attack teacher pensions!

the whole push to get rid of public employee unions and slash compensation is part of this as well

[Duer 157099]

6. Goddamned tragic.

But this sentence from the story is a bit puzzling:

"The coroner has not officially identified the bodies, but the birth date on the male body matches Cour’s birth date."

Birth date on the body? WTF?

[GiveMeFreedom]

7. Me too.

I am not to far behind this guy. Just came from the Doc and looks like I am the one with cancer. Bank of Asses knocking on the door for their house. Hired a bankruptcy attorney. Married 20 years and two kids still in the house. Lucky for me I sold all my guns before I got married. Not crazy enough to pull something like this, but damn Life is blowing and sucking real hard. Nice way to start the new year.

[mackerel]

8. A close friend of mine who had been trying to short sale

their home so that they could move on after the bank turned them down for a mortgage adjustment, she just found out quite by accident that her bank actually turned down a viable short sale offer and is now foreclosing on her property. She has 30 days to get out. She had a short sale offer and it was going to at least not do as much credit damage but now they just want her off the property altogether.

The bank was actually sending the notices to a home next door which is now vacant because that home is in foreclosure. Her husband found out only because he kept calling the realtor to find out if the short sale had gone through.

Crazy shite!

[truedelphi]

9. That happened to the property owner kitty corner from us. A house he had paid

Some 320 thousand dollars for, now worth only 94. But had the bank gone ahead and agreed to the short sale, they'd have received some 15K more.

But hey - Obama scolded the banking crowd toward the close of 2009. Just like he promised he would, back in October 2008. (Minus the part about him seeing to it that hard hitting stipulations would be written into a Financial Reform Act to be passed within a month of realizing how onerous the Bankers are.)

[mackerel]

10. Same story here, there home was bought

for 725K and the short sale was for 300K. Now her realtor says the bank will be probably not even get 200K for it. That's a 100K loss.

The 'why' is what I can't figure?

[truedelphi]

11. Some banks have insurance (Though it may not be called that)

That cover their losses on these situations. You can pretty much count on a bank to not care about unloading a property until the County taxes are about to kick in.

The homeowner in question - the bank took it over in October, and it was sold just fifteen days before the 2010 property taxes would have been required to be paid in full by that bank. So the bank was motivated at that point. Six months earlier they were not.

[mackerel]

12. Our property taxes here were due in Dec. They short sale

offer was made in November. They missed out on that but like you said they most like have insurance. I guess the bank really isn't losing anything.

[TerryJo]

13. No more tragic foreclosures

Lending banks are now being held accountable for the trap they set, borrowing money they didn't themselves have, while using loose and illegal practices in the process. The MASSIVE lawsuit against Wells Fargo / Wachovia, Indymac / OneWest bank, Citibank, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, GMAC..............can actually, not only put a stop to your foreclosure, but also pause your house payments with no loss to you............
https://sites.google.com/site/sueyourlendernow/